War Crimes Against Humanity

I once noted that I thought that the idea of a war crime is a redundancy because all war is a crime.  But what happened three months ago today is not only a crime, it would be inexcusable if it were a war exercise.  The fact that it was likely perpetrated to provoke a war also makes it a crime.

On September 2, 2025, Secretary of War (or Defense) Pete Hegseth ordered a U.S. Navy strike on a Venezuelan boat that his office says was a drug-running boat bringing fentanyl to American shores.  The boat was nowhere near Florida, the northern Gulf Coast, or Texas but in the Caribbean Sea, just north of Venezuela - a long way to bring a bunch of crates full of pills.  Two survivors managed to emerge from the explosion, and Hegseth made it clear that both must be taken out.  They were.

That isn't a military operation; it's murder.  Hegseth (above, at work) violated several U.S. laws and violated the Geneva Convention, making the United States susceptible to international prosecution.  Trump is standing by Hegseth, and Hegseth is standing by Mitch Bradley, the admiral who gave the order to kill the two survivors of the attack.  But he's also devolving much of the responsibility to Admiral Bradley, thus absolving himself of all blame and leaving Bradley holding the bag. 

That way Hegseth can hold . . . his booze.   

Hegseth can't drink his way out of this one.  He cannot deflect blame for the murder of the two survivors to Admiral Bradley and all the boys back in the drink.  The Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired  by Roger Wicker (R-MS) with Jack Reed (D-RI) as the ranking minority member,  issued a statement vowing to conduct what they call "vigorous oversight" on the strikes in the Caribbean on  . . . well, they likely weren't drug runners.  They were more likely fishing boats, struck on orders from Hegseth with approval from Trump mainly to . . . provoke a war against Venezuela to get to its vast oil reserves?

I need a drink.

There's plenty of bipartisan disgust with Hegseth over this, but he does have his defenders . . . notably Megyn Kelly, who, having offered a quasi-defense of Jeffrey Epstein having sex with females who are almost women - that is, girls, spoke to Mark Halperin on her talk show and said that she would like nothing better than to see the survivors of the boar attack not just killed but tortured in the process so they can feel severe pain as punishment for running fentanyl to Americans, even though she has no more of an idea than anyone else as to whether or not these sailors were drug runners.  (I'll deal with Kelly more thoroughly later.)

With Kelly a prominent voice in the media and with Hegseth having an outsized role over civilian administration of the military, the rest of the world is pretty much convinced that America has descended into lawlessness and cruelty and sees no reason to trust again for a long, long time, even after Trump and his minions are gone.  And that is yet another reason why I keep advocating for the United States to be broken up into separate countries. 

And by the way, forget Canada, which has a lot less oil than Venezuela . . . I think Trump wants Venezuela to be the fifty-first state.  But, given Trump's record, I'll bet a lot of Venezuelans, given the choice would prefer to stick with Nicolas Maduro.

So Please Don't Take My Ship From Me

Captain Brett Crozier of the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier may have earned himself a place in a Biden Cabinet, but he earned enmity from the Trump administration when he sent out a letter alerting the presence of the coronavirus on his ship and urged that the infected sailors on his ship be removed to save both their lives and the lives of their fellow crew members.

"We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die," Crozier (above) wrote. "If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset - our sailors."

Acting Navy Secretary - another acting Trump administration official! - Thomas Modly relieved him of command of the Theodore Roosevelt for allowing that letter to be circulated outside, as well as through, the chain of command.  Trump chimed in and concurred rather viciously with Modly's decisions.

Several people are petitioning the Navy to reinstate Crozier's command of the ship, and his plan to remove crew members safely as part of dealing with the coronavirus infection on board was followed through despite his dismissal.  Joe Biden has supported Crozier, and so have many Democrats -and, more importantly, the crew of Theodore Roosevelt.  They chanted his name in approval and celebration as he disembarked from the ship while she was docked in Guam.  

Captain Crozier is a hero.  He shouldn't be forced out for his command by a Vietnam non-veteran who got out of military service over "bone spurs."  And let me make it clear that I am not talking about Modly.

Two other things: Captain Crozier has since tested positive for the coronavirus.  Modly, who said that Captain Crozier was dumb and then apologized, has since resigned.